Wish I Were Here: Boredom and the Interface
Mark Kingwell
Apr 2019 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Adam Lofbomm
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Audiobook
5 hr 58 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Are you bored of the endless scroll of your social media feed? Do you swipe left before considering the human being whose face you just summarily rejected? Do you skim articles on your screen in search of intellectual stimulation that never arrives? If so, this book is the philosophical lifeline you have been waiting for. Offering a timely meditation on the profound effects of constant immersion in technology, also known as the Interface, Wish I Were Here draws on philosophical analysis of boredom and happiness to examine the pressing issues of screen addiction and the lure of online outrage. Without moralizing, Mark Kingwell takes seriously the possibility that current conditions of life and connection are creating hollowed-out human selves, divorced from their own external world. While scrolling, swiping, and clicking suggest purposeful action, such as choosing and connecting with others, Kingwell argues that repeated flicks of the finger provide merely the shadow of meaning, by reducing us to scattered data fragments, Twitter feeds, Instagram posts, shopping preferences, and text trends captured by algorithms. Written in accessible language that references both classical philosophers and contemporary critics, Wish I Were Here turns to philosophy for a cure to the widespread unease that something is amiss in modern waking life.
About the author
Mark Kingwell is a professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. He has published five books.
Adam Lofbomm's passion for language inspired him to read broadly, write extensively, speak publicly, and perform on-stage and on-camera. In 2006, when he stepped into the vocal booth for his first narration job, all those many pieces clicked into place. He realized that voice acting was what he was made to do.
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